Who is Slade Woodson?
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
We’re starting to learn a little bit more about Slade Woodson, the 19-year-old from Afton who is now facing felony charges in Waynesboro related to two shootings early yesterday morning, and is being called a suspect in a series of shootings reported on Interstate 64 in Albemarle County from the same time frame.
According to his MySpace page, Woodson is “a good ol’ country boy” whose interests include “mud boggin, workin on my trux, listenin to music, hangin out with friends.”
Pictures posted on the page show Woodson and vehicles in mud pits and Woodson and friends consuming alcohol.
Woodson wrote on a second MySpace page that he is “just a country boy who keeps gettin his heart broken!!! Ive got my heart broken twice in less then a year… i dunno wat to do…. keep gettin my heart broke or stop caring!!! and i dont wanna stop caring…”
He listed as his occupation on the first page “horse farm.” Woodson was arrested today at a horse farm in Albemarle County.
It is not immediately known if there is a connection between Woodson and the farm where he was arrested. Read more
No repeat of D.C. sniper case here
Stop the Presses column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
I think we learned yesterday that we can rest assured that our law-enforcement folks are going to keep us safe no matter what.
“We had one here in Waynesboro,” Waynesboro police chief Doug Davis told me, referring to the shootings reported overnight Wednesday and Thursday on Interstate 64 in Albemarle County that had made the national news.
Davis was cautious in linking the Waynesboro shooting – at a DuPont Community Credit Union branch on Lucy Lane just off I-64 – to the other shootings just down the road, but it seemed clear from the tone that he had his suspicions.
Police investigators had already sifted through surveillance footage from the bank to get an image of a car that had driven up to the bank before the shots rang out in the early-morning hours. Read more
One suspect in custody in shootings
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
An Afton teen in custody in connection with two shootings in Waynesboro early Thursday morning is considered a suspect in a series of shootings that were reported along a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 64 in Albemarle County.
Slade Woodson, 19, was taken into custody upon the execution of a search warrant at a home on Yonder Hill Farm Road in Albemarle County at 4:48 a.m. today, Virginia State Police Superintendent Steven Flaherty said in an 11 a.m. press conference in Charlottesville.
The execution of the search warrant was not done without incident. An armed man confronted tactical teams carrying out the warrant. The man, whose name has not been released, was shot by an Albemarle County police officer.
The man was airlifted to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he is being treated for his injuries.
The police officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the incident.
Woodson himself was taken into custody without incident, Flaherty said.
He is currently being held in Albemarle County on felony charges related to shootings in Waynesboro on the 200 block of North Commerce Avenue and at the DuPont Community Credit Union on Lucy Lane.
Woodson is considered a suspect in the six confirmed shootings on I-64 in Albemarle County, Woodson said.
Woodson is the owner of a 1974 AMC Gremlin that matches the description of a Gremlin witnessed in a security video from the credit union that was disseminated in the news media yesterday afternoon, Flaherty said.
Investigators continue to believe that there was more than one person involved in the shootings, Flaherty said. He did not release information about other possible suspects.
Woodson was “familiar to police,” Flaherty said in response to a reporter’s question about whether Woodson had a prior criminal record.
The shootings have not been tied to any known gang activity, Flaherty said.
It’s next year at UVa., Tech
Best Seat in the House column by Chris Graham
sportsdom@ntelos.net
Was it really so bad that Virginia and Virginia Tech both lost Wednesday night?
Um …
Well, consider UVa. coach Dave Leitao’s response to comments from Bradley guard Jeremy Crouch, who suggested that the Braves were able to confuse the Cavs defense in their 96-85 CBI Final Four win with its three-guard offense.
“The reality of it is, and I respect what he said, is that if you look at the statistics, every offense has given us trouble,” Leitao said. “Our defensive presence and attitude has not been there with any level of consistency. You could have played that offense that he is talking about, or we just played three different offenses. Richmond’s offense shot at or around 50 percent, Old Dominion’s offense shot 50 percent, and Bradley shot 48 percent. With all do respect to him, I think that we caused a lot of that.”
So no, I don’t think Leitao is all that upset that it’s next year now.
“I’m obviously disappointed in the way we played today. We just couldn’t get a 50-50 ball, and we didn’t have a presence defensively. Their size and maturity up front knocked the crap out of us. They were tougher than us. You have to give them credit,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said after Ole Miss had vanquished his Hokies by an 81-72 count in the quarterfinals of the NIT.
Interesting. Greenberg sounds like he did want to go on. Read more
Live Blog – I-64 shootings press conference
Get the latest on the Interstate 64 shootings investigation from our 11 a.m. live blog.
In workplaces and other spaces, can we all just get along?
Column by Jim Bishop
“Hmmmm, that’s rather unusual!”
That was her response when I told Susan Landes Beck, who was leading our in-service seminar at work that I had the same “25″ score in the various categories across the summary scoring sheet. All administrative faculty and staff had been asked to complete a 20-question Gilmore/Fraleigh Style Profile for Communication at Work and bring our results to the workshop for interpretation.
The seminar and the exercises we did focused on the vital need to work at understanding what makes us tick, why we approach tasks a certain way and how that affects interaction with those around us with differing work and management styles.
When things are “calm,” persons tend to operate a certain way. When a “storm” hits, we react and act differently. My scores indicated very little difference in responses between the two arenas. Read more
Let’s get ready to Rumble!
Story by Chris Graham
sportsdom@ntelos.net
Listen to today’s “SportsDominion Show” to learn more about Reality Rumble 2008. Show Length: 10:17.
[audio http://thenewdominion.podshowcreator.com/mediaserver/enclosureRedirect.mp3?item_id=094DE6888FAD43D9B029797D06ACDFE8]
On one side of the ring will be Jonny Fairplay, the “Survivor” cast member who famously lied about his grandmother having just died to try to get ahead on the reality-TV game show.
On the other side will be Billy Garcia, the “Survivor” cast member who did not lie about his grandmother having died to try to get ahead on the reality-TV game show.
What will help Garcia is that he has bona fides in wrestling in the form of a silver medal in the 1997 AAU national wrestling championships.
Fairplay, of course, is not without a trump card of his own up his sleeve.
One of his tag-team partners in Reality Rumble 2008 scheduled for April 5 at Spotswood High School will be Chris Dodson, the teacher of students with multiple disabilities at Spotswood, whose goal for the night is to raise money for several long-identified needs for his class.
That Fairplay sure knows how to play the sympathy card, doesn’t he?
OK, we can break kayfabe now. Dodson is the promoter of Reality Rumble 2008 as well, and it really is his aim to use the event to raise money for his multiple-disabilities class. Read more
